Unlikely Words

Rating: 3 stars

My former employer, The MathWorks, distributes a copy of this book to every new employee; on my last day I had nothing to do and started to read it and decided that it was, for a “business book,” surprisingly readable. The authors’ analysis of what separates a “visionary” and lasting company from the rest seems intuitive and correct to me, and I think their insights probably apply just as well to non-commercial enterprises. The irony, I find, is that nearly all of the exceptional and visionary companies the authors profile (IBM, HP, GE, Ford, Merck, Disney) have had dramatic falls from grace in the time since the book was published; I’d be very interested to read a version with a new afterward entitled “Wha’ Happened?”